Often when I am teaching, I show how use the Wacom Intuos Tablets. This tablet allows me to set a lot of the keystrokes I use on the tablet itself. This saves me time when I am working on retouching my images. I thought I would share these settings in a blog post.

First, this is how I figured out how to program the tablet settings. It is a good idea to do this yourself so you can customize it to your personal workflow. To get my most used keyboard shortcuts, I wrote down each shortcut as a list on a sheet of paper. This allowed me to only consider the shortcuts I used the most and not the ones that were used only occasionally. Then, after listing all the keyboard shortcuts I used, I set aside two days when I was only editing images. With the list of keyboard shortcuts next to my keyboard, I placed a “tic” mark next to each shortcut I used in those two days. I edited a large variety of images so I got a good cross sampling of my work flow with shortcuts.

The following is a visual with short programming tips, along with a listing of my most used shortcuts, what I programmed on the tablet.

Pen programming

Option (Mac) / Alt (Windows)                                                             Forward Button on the Pen

Space Bar (Mac and Windows)                                                          Back Button on the Pen

Express key programming

Express keys on tablet below shuttle wheel

(Starting from the bottom key moving up)

F Key (Mac and Windows)                                                                 First Button
Frame (make work area hide desktop)                                                (Bottom Button)

Command 0 (Mac) / Control 0 (Windows)                                            Second Button from the bottom
Fit Frame (resize image to fit into window)

Command Option Shift N, Command Option Shift E (Mac)                   Third Button from the bottom
Control Alt Shift N, Control Alt Shift E (Windows)
Merge Visible Copy
(Merge all visible layers and make new layer copied from this merge)

Command S (Mac) / Control S (Windows)                                          Fourth Button from the bottom
Save

Express keys on tablet above shuttle wheel
(Starting from the bottom key moving up)

B Key (Mac and Windows)                                                               Fifth Button from the bottom
Brush

Option Command Z (Mac)                                                                Sixth Button from the bottom
Alt Control Z (Windows)

Radial Menu                                                                                   Seventh Button from the bottom
(Creates a pop-up radial menu for additional speed keys)

Shift Command A (Mac)                                                                  Eighth Button from the bottom Shift
Control A (Windows)                                                                       (Top Button)

(Add a Control Point inside Nik Software)

Shuttle Wheel
(Work Clock-wise from the upper left hand corner)

Right Bracket Key (top) Left Bracket Key (bottom)                        Upper Left
Brush Size (Mac and Windows)

Zoom                                                                                        Upper Right

Right Bracket Key (top) Left Bracket Key (bottom)                        Lower Right
Brush Size (Mac and Windows)

Zoom                                                                                        Lower Left

Notice: The New Wacom Intuos 5 does not have display windows built into the tablet. Instead there is a new Express View that will show on your computer screen. The ExpressKeys have a raised portion that is either a dot or a dash. The Express View will also show the dot or the dash as well as what key you are presently touching with an orange highlight color. Pressing down on the ExpressKey will apply the speed key command you have programmed for that key. (See below). To activate the Express View for the Touch Ring, click on the middle toggle button for Express View.

Below are examples of the ExpressKeys and Touch Ring with programming in an Express View.